


Unburied

by doyouhearthunder



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: a brief look at the events of the game from Toriel's perspective, with just a dash of Choose Your Own Adventure style formatting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 07:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9374252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doyouhearthunder/pseuds/doyouhearthunder
Summary: Toriel's life has been marred by tragedy.  But maybe, this time, you can give her a happy ending.





	1. Begin

You were a mother once. Now you’re just a shadow, quietly living in a solitary confinement of your own making, twice buried, in the Ruins of your life in a forgotten corner of a forgotten underground. It is a lonely life.

Every so often, you find a child. You care for them, they leave you, and they die. This happens again, and again, and again. You suppose that you must be cursed.

The eighth time that this happens is different. But it always starts the same way.

You’re in a part of the Ruins you rarely venture into except when you’re feeling at your lowest, and you find the child being menaced by a horrible flower monster. They are small and lost and scared, and wearing a blue and purple striped shirt, and you don’t mean to get so attached so quickly, you know how this will end, but they remind you so much of someone you used to love, someone buried so close by that you can almost feel their presence in the air, and you can’t help but intervene.

So you take the child back to your Home and you give them a bed to sleep in and a slice of pie to eat. You promise that you will look after them and you try not to feel sick with worry. For a moment you almost convince yourself that this time maybe it will be okay, but sure enough, before long the child becomes anxious to move on and all hope for their future leaves you. You almost lose yourself to your fear and grief then, almost make a terrible mistake in your desperation to safeguard not just the child, but yourself. You have seen too many children die for one lifetime, even a life as long as yours. You can’t take another loss, you are one more hit away from disintegration, and you are so afraid.

But the child is determined and does not heed your warnings or obey your commands. And so, not knowing what else to do, you give them a chance to prove to you that they have a fighting chance out there, in that world that is so cruel to human children. And of course, in so doing, you also give them a choice:

SPARE TORIEL – Proceed to Chapter 4  
FIGHT TORIEL – Proceed to Chapter 2  
STRIKE WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT – Proceed to Chapter 3


	2. Fight

The surprise on your face as the killing blow lands is only matched by the horror on the face of the child. Tears of regret instantly start to stream down their cheeks, but you quickly become calm, as you find that you are no longer afraid. In fact, you cannot remember the last time you felt so unafraid. You’re ready for this. You’ve been ready for this for a long time. Your last words are kindly words of advice, directed at the scared little human before you, but your last thoughts are of your son, and as your body fades and your SOUL begins to shatter, you are filled with the strangest and most profound feeling of hope that you have ever experienced.


	3. Strike

The battle lasts mere seconds before the child’s attack rips through you, quick and decisive and utterly without mercy. You are shocked, but the child’s face is blank, impassive, their eyes suddenly, unnervingly dead, displaying no trace of emotion. This is not the same child that you met the previous day, this is something new, and yet familiar; that sense of déjà vu that you felt when you first saw them wells up again, stronger this time, and for an instant you glimpse something in those dark, dead eyes. A flicker of something you’ve seen before, but twisted almost beyond recognition, but no, that can’t be possible, it can’t be them they died they’re gone they’re dead and buried and this creature, this specter of your past mistakes who just struck you down, they can’t possibly be your Ch-

Your thoughts fall into dust along with your body as your killer watches, silent and still.


	4. Change

But the child refuses to fight, making the choice again and again to not lift a finger against you, until you are forced to acknowledge the foolishness of what you are doing. You want so desperately to have a child once more, and the thought gnaws at your heart like a splinter, but you would rather die than become that child’s jailer. So you stop, and you bid the child farewell and hug them tight, and then you turn away so that they cannot see your tears, and you flee back into your prison.

You visit the grave then, the bed of golden flowers where you took the first human child’s body to be buried. Nothing remained of your son to bury except dust, but the human’s remains you know are still down there, underneath the soil, making the flowers grow in this otherwise cold, dead place. For a long while you think about this, about why humans persist after death, leaving behind physical reminders of their existence while monsters instantly fade from all but memory, just as they did when they left the surface hundreds of years ago. In a way, you think, everyone down here is dead, shut away in a massive tomb and forgotten, buried while still living. And you most of all.

You have only two points of contact with the outside world in here: the man you tell jokes with through the door, and the shy ghost who comes down to the Ruins now and then. The comedian you hope may help the child, as you once presciently requested that he do if a human ever again entered the Underground. But you weren’t expecting to hear news of the child from the ghost, who took months to even work up the courage to return your friendly greetings when you saw them, instead of getting spooked and flying away through a wall. They tell you how they met a human child, once in the Ruins and then again in Waterfall, how the child was kind to them and wanted to be friends. But your heart sinks when the ghost recounts how the child was being hunted by the Captain of the Royal Guard, who has bought so fully into the King’s violent, desperate plan to destroy the barrier that she is determined to kill any human on sight.

You camp yourself by the door to the Ruins then, and stay there, for how long you do not know, until eventually, finally, you hear a knock on the door from outside and a familiar voice say “Knock knock.” You are in no mood for jokes however, and rush to ask him if he has met a human child. What he tells you then fills you alternatingly with relief, wonder, pride and fear: not only has the child managed to fight the Captain of the Guard and escape unscathed, but somehow befriended them as well! You can scarcely believe it, but according to your friend, the child is well-liked by all they meet, winning over monsters despite the long distrust and hostility between the two races. But your pride turns to horror again as you realize that the child, now reportedly in Hotland where the Royal Scientist is helping guide them, is almost to the end of their journey through the Underground…and awaiting them at the end is the King, who has never found it in his heart to forgive humanity. You have little reason to think that he can be swayed from his chosen path. And even if the human can overcome him and prevail…you find that the consequences of that outcome do not sit well with you either.

You know then that you cannot allow this destructive cycle to continue, that you can’t let yourself stay holed up avoiding the consequences of your tragedy, that something must be done. So you tell your friend to gather all those befriended by the human child and head at once to New Home. And then, once he has left, you open the door and step outside into the harsh white light, breathing in the frozen air of the world you left behind and feeling more alive than you have in years.

What happens after that is a complicated jumble of events, and not all of it you understand; you remember intervening just in time in the child’s fight with the King. You remember the meetings of old friends, new friends, and a former lover, the most interaction with your fellow monsters you’ve had in ages. Then you recall everyone being attacked by that terrible flower creature that you had seen from time to time skulking in the Ruins, and then everything went white and you do not know what happened after that.

But now here you are, with everyone, unharmed. And the most wondrous and inexplicable thing of all…the barrier is open. You take the child (who now tells you their name is Frisk) by the hand, and together you make your way up, past the now-shattered wall of your race’s collective jail cell, and out into the fresh air of the surface world that once denied you, and you feel a hope for the future stir within you unlike anything you have ever known. You are no longer buried. You have a reason to continue now.

But among this newfound possibility, there is still one lingering question that troubles you. And so, as you stand looking out at the sunrise with this wonderful, kind child who saved both you and your people from the fate that you had long since resigned yourself to, you gently, hesitantly ask Frisk to make one more choice:

I WANT TO STAY WITH YOU – Proceed to Chapter 6  
I HAVE PLACES TO GO – Proceed to Chapter 5


	5. Leave

You know it would be unfair to ask Frisk to give up whatever home they had on the surface before they met you, but you can’t deny it hurts to part with them. But you are used to being alone, and now, as you look out at the human city in the distance, you can feel a new age dawning; for monsters, for humans, and for yourself. Maybe you can still find a purpose in that new world, and a chance to make up for your past failings. In a world of both humans and monsters, you think, there will be great need for someone who has experience in bringing those two peoples together. And you’ve always wanted to be a teacher…


	6. Stay

There is a fire in your hearth and a butterscotch pie in the oven, and a sleeping child in bed in the other room. Your life is not so lonely anymore. You are a mother once again.


End file.
